Mass Effect/Fridge: Difference between revisions

* The reapers and their cycle of extinction provide the perfect answer for the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox:Fermi paradox|Fermi Paradox]].

* Sovereign is less composed than Harbinger, it seems. Why? Because Sovereign is a ''total fuckup''. He's been trying to start the Reaper invasion for several ''hundred'' years. He tried starting with the Rachni, but they withstood him. Then he tried starting with the geth, despite his hating the living guts out of them (because they can't be turned into Reapers, for one), and ''they failed'' by the end of ''[[Mass Effect 1]]''. By the time he's invading the Citadel, he's out and out ''desperate''.

* At the end of ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mass Effect 1]]'' {{spoiler|Shepard is given three choices. Paragon: Save the Asari Dreadnought. Renegade: Screw the Council over. Neutral: Focus fire on Soverign, thus killing the Asari dreadnought anyway.}} I was a little pissed that the neutral choice still gives you renegade points but then I realized {{spoiler|not taking action when you can is still JUST AS BAD.}}

* Whether accidental or intentional, the Mass Effect theme music fits exactly into the intro credits to [[Star Trek: Voyager]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZs00NjTPoo\]

** In fact, most people looking at the cover for ''[[Mass Effect (Franchise)/Ascension|Mass Effect: Ascension]]'' would immediately assume that the novel involves geth, because of the "flashlight head" on the cover. It isn't until one looks closer that it becomes apparent that the cover is actually showing a quarian helmet.

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'', you bust Jack out of Purgatory, a prison ship held by the Blue Suns. Now, the merc gang they belong to might not matter, but think for a moment. The Blue Sun(s) hold a girl who's badass, a trained killer, and insane. If this is starting to sound familiar, did I mention that she [[Firefly|can kill you with her brain]]? They used them for yet another Firefly [[Shout -Out]] (the Blue Sun Corporation is the jackasses who were a large part of the Academy's funding/control). Someone at [[Bio WareBioWare]] must really like ''Firefly''.

** That same ''Firefly'' fan/[[Bio WareBioWare]] employee must also like [[Pitch Black|Riddick]] if he'd name a badass bald chick 'Jack' (a badass bald chick named Jack who is rescued from a [[The Alcatraz|maximum security prison]]).

* I originally thought the loading screens in ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' that depict the ''Normandy'' traveling between systems - the ones that show it using its built-in FTL drive with the red light heading "toward" the Normandy and the blue light heading "away" from it - were just a pretty cool effect. It wasn't until a few months later and I was rereading the Codex's entry on FTL drives and their appearance that I realized the light approaching the Normandy was being red-shifted by the mass effect field, and the light moving away from it was being blue shifted, ''exactly as it was described in the Codex.'' The sheer level of detail and dedication to internal consistency in the game's ''very loading screens'' blew my mind. -- [[Unknown Troper]]

* I had a moment of Fridge Brilliance for Mass Effect's plot itself. Initially, he had many of the same misgivings stated on the [[Just Bugs Me/Mass Effect|Just Bugs Me]] page: Why didn't Saren activate the Citadel Relay while he was there, secretly? Why didn't Sovereign just attack the Citadel in the first place? What was the point behind Saren having to find the Beacons and Ilos? But then, this troper reached the Ilos VI, and through the dialog with it, [[ThisPunctuated! IsFor! SpartaEmphasis!|EVERYTHING. MADE. SENSE.]] Sovereign's original plan was to get the Keepers to activate the Relay themselves, allowing him to let the Reapers return without ever really lifting a finger. But with the Keepers modified by the Protheans, Sovereign's essentially screwed. Sure, he could've flown in and hooked himself up to the Citadel and done the job manually, but as we see at the end of the game, he would've gotten Curb Stomped pretty badly by the defending fleets and then that'd be the end of the Reapers. So with Saren's help, he formulates a backup plan. Somehow, he knows the Protheans made a miniature Relay that let them get to the Citadel, so he sends Saren off to find it, with the Beacons able to tell him the location (likely by tracing the Beacons back to their point of origin). At the same time, Saren begins gathering allies: the Geth, the Krogan, the Rachni, etc. All of it, ''all of it'', the gathering of allies and the finding of the Conduit, was all just to provide Sovereign with cover and protection long enough for him to activate the Citadel Relay manually. The new plan would've been thus: with the Relay on Ilos secured, Saren teleports onto the Citadel with an army of Geth, Krogan and Rachni, completely overwhelming the defenders and crippling the Citadel's "ground" defenses. Sovereign flies in with the Geth fleet, the Geth carving a path for him through the Citadel fleet and holding off any reinforcements. Saren, in control of the Citadel's Control Center, closes the Citadel's arms, preventing anyone else from approach the station. With the Geth fleet maintaining a perimeter outside and Saren's army preventing anyone still on the Citadel from interfering, Sovereign is given all the time he needs to hook himself up to the Citadel, activate the Relay manually and summon the other Reapers. EFFING. BRILLIANT. -[[Ghost Who Walks]]

** Now take this in conjunction with what we have seen in Mass Effect 2. While Sovereign was doing his thing with Saren and the Geth, since long before the attack on Eden Prime, as Legion reveals, Harbinger was overseeing the operations of the collectors, who were researching the species of the Galaxy in order to determine the best way to exploit them during the Reaper invasion. However, the Collectors had all the systems in place to start making a new Reaper themselves, without direct intervention from their Masters, allowing them to begin building a Reaper within the Galaxy that could be used to make another attempt to open the Citadel Mass Relay. In addition to this, Harbinger makes the Collectors go to ludicrous lengths to kill Shepard and retrieve the body, just to make sure Shepard is properly dead. But that's not all! As shown in the Arrival DLC, the Reapers also had a back door into the Galaxy, the Alpha relay, that they could reach relatively quickly, and this relay, when properly configured, allowed them to quickly travel to far-flung areas of the Galaxy, including the Citadel. They could have used the Alpha relay to send several Reapers to the citadel to attempt what Sovereign himself had tried to do, and with the support of a small fleet of reapers rather than a puny fleet of geth ships, a single Reaper could succeed easily. They had three different, concurrent plans to achieve their objective, and possibly more that we do not know of yet. [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] does not even begin to cover it! And Shepard somehow screws with all their plans! - Valhar2000

** And further, why is the entire Reaper race so angry with Shepard? S/He's an entire species-wide cock-blocker of monumental proportions! As of the end of ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'', the Reapers probably consider Shepard guilty of {{spoiler|murder, grave-robbery, desecration of the dead, and child-killing (or forced abortion). No wonder they look pissed.}}

** Thinking on this, I just realized that he was probably exposed to the beacon just before the attack. The doctor describes him as 'always a bit unstable', but maybe this is what happens to a 'lesser mind', as Liara put it. - [[Tropers/Randomfanboy|Randomfanboy]]

** 'Lesser mind'? If he indeed was exposed to the beacon, Manuel understood perfectly well what the message meant far sooner than Shepard did after his exposure. Being a slightly 'off' genius (some form of autism perhaps?) allowed Manual to probably process the beacon information much faster, with great clarity. Too bad he went mad from the revelation... [[Tropers/X-File|X-File]]

* The principle villains of ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' are {{spoiler|The Collectors. You could buy a limited Collector's Edition, whereupon you got The Collector's armor as a bonus. It's not an edition for collectors. It's the edition OF The Collectors. Of course!}} -- [[User:Jack Slack]]

* OK. So let's talk about Udina. He's a cold, uncharismatic toad. His decision making is absolutely lousy. He clearly lacks any ability to be a good politician. So why on earth did he get such a high position? The answer comes from Anderson: "Udina has his uses. If you want to get anything done on the Citadel, he knows who to ask." ''Of course''. He's not a politician; he's a ''bureaucrat''. He's a very good bureaucrat. As an assistant to a decent politician, he'd make that politician's career - People would praise that politician as decisive and capable. But Udina is also ambitious and doesn't know his own limitations. It's a combination that got him promoted above his level of competence... right to the point where he could help end all organic life, in fact. -- [[User:Jack Slack]]

{{quote| Here're the plans for your new implants. Now go out and mine random planets to get the minerals you need to build it!<br />

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'', one of the first things you behold upon entering Omega is a line of people queued in front of an elcor bouncer. According to the Codex, elcor are heavy-worlders capable of punching their way through a bulkhead, adept at detecting body language, and who speak in a very calm, concise and ''infuriating'' manner. Thus it makes sense to use them as bouncers.

* It's easy to get angry about how the love interest from the original. They're at least distant, if not outright hostile. But, think about this for a minute. Shepard is probably as angry about this as you are! S/he would go looking for someone for comfort. Tali and Garrus serve as the [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]] of sorts. Thane is the dying Woobie to bond with. Miranda and Jacob take Ashley and Kaidan's place almost perfectly. They all have good reasons for acting like this -- ''especially'' [[Broken Bird|Liara]]. It turns out {{spoiler|she got that way saving your life. Trashing her ends up being an epic case of [[What the Hell, Hero?]].}} It's still infuriating for Liara/Shepard shippers, but <s>presumably</s> remaining loyal to her <s>will pay off in ME3</s> pays off ''big time'' for Liara romancers in Lair of the Shadow Broker.

** Indeed, in Lair of the Shadow Broker, Shepard gives Liara a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] about being cold and distant with them...and she gives them a better one right back, pointing out that s/he can't just make two years of pain go away.

** That, and he's voiced by Fred Tatasciore, the same guy who voiced [[Knight Templar|Sa]][[The Dragon|ren]] and [[Complete Monster|Balak]] in ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mass Effect 1]]''.

* Also in the sequel, some fans don't like the way your Charm and Intimidate checks are completely tied to your Karma Meters rather than an upgradeable skill. However, it makes a whole lot more sense this way because it means that your reputation is preceding you. If people know you have history of kindness, they are more likely to believe you when you try and charm them. Likewise they are more likely to cower before you if they know what [[Badass|badasserybadass]]ery you're capable of. Also, it means that every conversation is an opportunity to upgrade your Persuasion skill: a character that always takes a neutral response WILL miss out on a lot of Karma and therefore be unable to orate properly. [[Your Mileage May Vary|It doesn't fix every problem]], but the concept is interesting.

** Then again, the system in the first game makes sense as well. When you add points to the skill, you're basically training it offscreen. Think [[Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney]] and his [[No Indoor Voice|Chords of Steel]].

** As long as you don't use the medbay upgrade to heal your scars, those could tie in as well - while a Paragon Shepard's scars heal and make them look more like a normal human, Renegade's get worse, and when someone with [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|eyes]] and [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|scars]] that glow red threatens you, you're probably going to be inclined to listen.

** It was explicitly stated in the manual for both games that the Paragon-Renegade meters are measuring reputation. That's why they are seperateseparate instead of being a single value; people don't forget the colony you wiped out on Feros just because you revealed corruption on Noveria.

* The Collector ship that hits you in the first scene of ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' is the same one that you attack later in the game and the same one that gets fragged by Garrus during the suicide mission. What are the odds of that? Well, keep in mind the Collectors are so uncommon many don't believe they exist. The easiest way for it to be the same ship is if it's the only ship they have, and considering {{spoiler|the Collectors are all that's left of the enslaved Protheans}}, makes it make a very scary sense.

** Also logical in a different way--theway—the Reapers really ''don't'' need more than a handful of Collectors. The way they operate (from the shadows and over very long periods of time) means that it's simply not necessary for there to be many of them. Attacking the Normandy was quite likely the first significant act of aggression the Collectors ever did. (because there was no fighting involved with kidnapping colonies)

* In the sequel, it's possible to help [[Complete Monster]] Morinth kill her [[Knight Templar]] of a mother, Samara. It's easy to look at Shepard's decision to do this as a case of [[Chaotic Stupid]] or severe [[Moral Dissonance]], unless you're playing a majority Renegade game. After completing her loyalty mission and talking with her a few more times, Samara will state that she would have killed you a long time ago if she hadn't sworn her Oath before joining, and that after you part ways, if she ever sees you again, you're as good as dead. And all of a sudden, the decision to save Morinth looks a bit more like a [[Magnificent Bastard|profound moment of foresight]]. Which person would be less of a threat to an [[Anti -Hero]]: the [[Knight Templar]] who would kill the galaxy's only hope for doing his/her job, or the sex vampire who's only a threat to you if you're [[Too Dumb to Live]]?

*** Not to rain on the parade, but a full Renegade Shepard would choose Morinth simply based on two things: 1) he can easily dispose of her should she get antsy while on HIS ship, and Morinth knows as much, especially by endgame she should be aware Shepard is more than she can take on, and she's hardly stupid, and 2), which is most important, Renegade Shep doesn't really give half a damn about anyone ELSE Morinth could kill so long as she proves useful to him. Remember what the Renegade choices in Zaeed's mission involve? Yeah, that's pretty much how he rolls. Renegade Shepard is a borderline [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity]], and if he has to choose between a highly useful ally and the lives of some schmucks whom he doesn't even know, it's a pretty safe bet to say he won't be picking the treehugging goody two shoe choice. Simple as that.

* It's noted on the main ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' page that the planet Klandagon is described as having a massive scar carved from a mass effect weapon fired either at or by the Reaper you board in ''2''. But notice what's in the orbital just outside Klendagon? {{spoiler|An asteroid belt. [[Earthshattering Kaboom|Boom]].}}

* So, hey, the credits for ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' are pretty nifty and all, with that awesome music playing in the background, as you're reading that white text against a black background with gold section headers... wait a second, where have I seen that color scheme before? {{spoiler|That's ''Cerberus''' colors!}}

* Speaking of colors. At first it kind of irked me to notice that the repaints after the loyalty missions all had the generic badass black color-scheme while the original outfits all had more originality and the colors made everyone seem more individual. Looking at the squad selection screen after getting several loyalty missions though you start to notice that the loyal ones are starting to look similar. As they become loyal they're putting on a uniform. They're becoming part of the team! -[[Pa Ja]]

** That moment of Fridge Brilliance led to this troper's own moment of Fridge Brilliance. Consider Garrus. The other team members go from various color schemes to some combination of black/orange/white. Garrus, and to a lesser degree, Tali, change their armors to something that resembles the Cerberus color palette, but maintains distinct differences, such as Garrus' use of blue. After reading the above entry, the thought struck me: Yes, the ME1 veterans are changing something to fit in with Cerberus, but retaining enough individuality to show that they are allied with Shepard first, and Cerberus a very distant second. The reason that Garrus shows more individuality is that he was recruited early, when Shepard was at his most uncomfortable working with/for The Illusive Man. -Schezar

* In the first ''Mass Effect'', Saren's goal is to preserve the existence of organic life by proving that it can be of use to the Reapers -- thatReapers—that submission, to paraphrase one of his lines, exists as a preferable alternative to extinction. Naturally, everyone thinks he's crazy, and that the Reapers would wipe out all organic life anyway. It's not until ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' when you {{spoiler|discover that the Collectors were once Protheans}} that you learn he was ''right'' -- the—the Reapers would have preserved organic life, {{spoiler|though almost certainly in a very different form than what existed}}. Not only that, but it's likely that Saren KNEW {{spoiler|the true fate of the Protheans}}, which is why he was trying to prove that organic life should be spared {{spoiler|once again}}. Submission really DID exist as an alternative to extinction (though [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|"just beating the hell out of the Reapers"]] was [[Take a Third Option|obviously better than either of those choices]]). -Technogeek

** "Obviously"? Considering that the ultimate consequence of Shepard's actions(a hell-bent fleet of Reapers on a destructive [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curp-stomp]]- [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against every living species) could easily be seen as the worst-case-senario, he would objectively have been ''[[Genre Savy|right]]'' to make that call on behalf of the entire galaxy.

**** But still consider Saren's point of view--heview—he'd rather they survive ''somehow'' than definitely all die, as from his point of view, there's no possible way for the Reapers to be stopped (and if Shepard wasn't so awesome, there really wouldn't be a way to stop the Reapers. Quite frankly, if the Normandy had been a few hours farther from Eden Prime, the Reapers probably would have already won!).

* In the sequel, minor [[Mooks]] can be buffed by Harbinger '''[[Villain Override|ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL]]'''. Now go back {{spoiler|and notice what happens to Saren once you "kill" him the first time in the original. Sovereign tried the same trick.}} - [[JAF 1970]]

* Here is some epic foreshadowing. In ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mass Effect 1]]'', you get to hear a poem from Ashley. "O captain, my captain." Shepard can point out. "Didn't the captain die?" Sure enough, in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]''...

** This troper recently read this poem to his class after playing ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]''. Try reading it while listening to "I'm Proud of You" from the game's score. That poem could have been written about Shepard instead of Lincoln and would have made as much sense.

*** Reading the above, it hit this troper: with two people around, one of them is providing covering fire. When alone, only Joker is there and he's pulling Shepard. Joker pulling means he's not providing covering fire. Without covering fire to keep heads down, the Collectors can take their time to aim and actually hit something. -- [[wkz]]

** Miranda's face is actually modeled after her voice actor, [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Strahovski:Yvonne Strahovski|Yvonne Strahovski]].

*** True, but it's certainly not entirely accurate, especially when compared to Samara, who was also modelledmodeled after a real person (albeit not her voice actor). -- Medicus

*** However, recent research has found that while -some- symmetricalness is considered attractive, a perfectly symmetrical face is actually considered -less- due to a feeling of well... unnaturalness.

*** Also, she looks kind of like John Travolta.

* If the player {{spoiler|chooses Morinth instead of Samara during the latter's loyalty mission, Morinth will join the squad. At the end of the game, you're given option to have sex with Morinth, but it obviously leads to [[Death Byby Sex]]. A common belief is Shepard would have to be stupid to have sex with Morinth but it actually makes sense in context. Morinth is a character who puts her victims in [[More Than Mind Control]] and has an absolute obsession with winning. Shepard is the one person who ever escaped her grasp. So essentially she was biding her time until Shepard finally fell under her control.}}

* In the Grission Academy mission Jack will talk to you even if you had gotten to the point where she won't talk to you in [[MEMass Effect 2]]. Why? At first it could seem just that Bioware [[They Just Didn't Care|didn't factor that in]] however it shows how forgiving she has become after taking the job, trusting Shepard now that he is working against Cerberus and even if he had alienated her during the last game, that Punch she gives you is essentially all the pay back she wanted from you showing that she is no longer as blood-thirsty as she was in Mass Effect 2, that and killing your most trustworthy ally during a fight would not be a very good Idea.

* In the sequel, when you find out that Archangel {{spoiler|is actually Garrus}} and he's been holding off wave after wave of mercenaries, mech soldiers, and elite hitmen for ''days'', you might just assume that {{spoiler|Garrus [[Took a Level Inin Badass]]}}, right? Except if you talk to {{spoiler|Garrus frequently in the first game}}, you find out that he was originally ''{{spoiler|hand-picked as someone who would make a good Spectre candidate}}''. Of course he {{spoiler|was able to take fifteen [[Took a Level Inin Badass|Levels In Badass]] in the sequel -- he could have been the turian ''Shepard'', and he's embracing his innate Spectre talents!}} [[Memetic Mutation|Very...impressive.]]

*** This also ties into why Garrus takes Sidonis' betrayal so hard. ''He'' put Sidonis in there, and because Sidonis betrayed his buddies, it means ''Garrus'' was the one that fucked up. -Peteman

* The name of the [[Norse Mythology|LOKI]] mechs in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' is pretty funny when you realize that they're constantly glitching out and betraying you.

*** As well as in Shadow Broker's Dossiers, Legion is a huge gamer not because they found it fun but rather it was a means of [[Psychic Static]], since the Shadow Broker keeps tabs on almost everything. One way for Legion to counteract that is to delegate a set of programs to be playing video games (from Grim Terminus Alliance to that Quarian Dating Sim), another set to combat function and the rest to deal with annoying AI intrusion, switched regularly of course. It was only during the whole conversation with EDI were they able to get a relevant log related to Legion. - Gyrobot

* Wrex's famous line, "You ask a krogan if he'd rather find a cure for the genophage, or fight for credits, and he'll choose fighting -- every time. It's just who we are, Shepard. I can't change that. No one can." It shows how bitter and jaded he is toward his fellow krogan. However, if he survives the first game, his rule has begun to do just that: change the krogan and save them from their own brutal selves. Wow. - [[Spectral Time]]

* Mordin's loyalty mission pushes his deep morality to the limit, especially if Paragon Shepard chooses to argue with him. What's his main justification for enacting the genophage? Judging an entire species by their reputation and biology. Hmm, remind me, what was one of the main points of the game? Oh right - you can't judge a person by their species or race, you have to take them individually. It doesn't completely invalidate his position, of course, but it does make it even more deliciously complex, even more so considering it's juxtaposed with Wrex's work. - [[randomfanboy]]

** The most shocking part is that, if pushed enough, Mordin gives his main reason for perfecting the genophage: The simulations did not show Krogans immune to the genophage taking over the Galaxy, no, they did show Turians and [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|Humans]] committing genocide against the Krogans. Mordin did not act the way he did because he feared the Krogans, but because he did not trust his very own civilization. And remember: Mordin says that Turians ''and Humans'' would have committed a genocide against the Krogan: who's the best human warrior of his/her generation? Had the genophage 2.0 not been designed, chances are that either the Alliance, Cerberus, or both, would have tasked ''Shepard'' with slaughtering the Krogans. – Nixou

* Initially, when on the flotilla, I thought the wide variety of accents quarian characters was unrelated to their culture, but then I realized that, by separating out onto ships, quarians essentially live in small countries, preserving unique dialects, accents and subcultures. Some quarian ships are older than countries on Earth. It makes sense that, after first being forced off their homeworlds, ships would have initially been inhabited by people from the same clans or colonies - if only because they would have been in the same area - and they probably wouldn't have started trading shipmates until many years later, so all these traits from the old communities would have been reinforced, forging the many evolving quarian dialects we hear today. - Badgersprite

**** Just on the "everyone speaks English" front: why does everyone speak in North American accents, save for Miranda (Australian), Ken (Scottish), Chakwas/Zaeed (English), etc.? Because Shepard is from North America, and the alien languages are being translated into a form that s/he will understand best: North American-accented English! As for the differences in quarian accents; the translators are constantly updated, because of new races being discovered and the gradual changes in tens of thousands of galactic languages. The quarian entries are rarely updated, because they rarely interact with the rest of galactic society. Instead, they work off of older data, probably the "inter-Fleet" language quarians use on Pilgrimage, resulting in the half-dozen accents as the translators struggle to translate the sub-languages amongst the Flotilla. -- Medicus

***** I like to think Shepard is Canadian. He did get his ''[[Dragon Age]]'' armor from the ''Edmonton'' Blood Dragons (yes [[Bio WareBioWare]]'s from Edmonton, but so's [[Nathan Fillion]] and the prospect of ''ME'' meeting ''[[Firefly]]'' is too awesome too ignore).

*** Shep (particularly Male!Shep) has been known to let a Canadian accent slip from time to time.

** This is a fairly common (anti-authority) archetype in Western media; see especially Malcolm Reynolds from [[Firefly]] and his own inspiration, Han Solo from ''[[Star Wars]]'' (Solo's character itself drawing heavily on the "[[Anti -Hero]] who finds redemption" archetype of old cowboy Westerns, though Mal gets bonus points for actually being on the losing side of a [[Civil War|civil war]]). --genkracken

* Throughout the game, Miranda makes a big deal of how she was "designed to be perfect" and that [[Cursed Withwith Awesome|hasn't really made her life significantly better]]. It's easy to take this at face value as [[An Aesop]] against the limitations and potential misuse of genetic engineering, but then you realise that there's a a double, out-of-universe meaning. Miranda is a Sentinel: she can use both Warp and Overload, making her effective against enemies with all four types of protection. Her passive boosts the entire squad's weapon damage and health points. And she's one of only two squadmates that can max out three abilities instead of just two. ''Bioware'' '''''literally''''' ''designed Miranda to be the perfect squadmate''.

** Not to mention she also gets the most powerful Advanced ability in terms of raw damage. Slam can [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|one-hit kill Collectors]], and its cooldown is ''one second''.

** It gets weirder. Remember how her only flaw was that she was infertile? Why would her father care if she can have children, when he can demonstrably make more of her if he so chose? Now, consider the next step: she joined Cerberus to get away from her father, who is later shown in ME3 to be a member. Her original duty in ME2? Resurrecting Shepard to be exactly as Shepard was before death, using technology that had to be exceedingly close to her own creation. It's even possible depending on when her father was indoctrinated that she wasn't designed to be "perfect" for humanity, her father, or Cerberus, but for the Reapers themselves: if they ever captured her, they'd unlock one of the most powerful biotics around and the cloning technology used to make her (and, therefore, the tech to make a reaper out of her alone).

* So, pretty much every gameplay change between the first and second games has an in-universe justification. Ammo? It's heat sinks. No Mako? Probes. Appearance and class change? Project Lazarus wasn't perfect. However, what if a Paragon player in the first game decided to be a complete asshole in the second? It's mentioned a few times that Shepard's personality may have changed due to brain damage - turning him from a nice guy to a jerk, vice versa, and everything in between. - [[Tropers/Tera Chimera|Tera Chimera]]

** This was even my pseudo-justification for why I couldn't successfully play a "Renegade with intense loyalty to her crew" Shepard as a result of tying Charm and Intimidate directly to Paragon/Renegade. While my old Shepard would've been a bitch but tried to keep her crew as co-operative towards each other as possible, after Project Lazarus screwed up a nerve ending or two, I couldn't treat my crew the same way as I could before dying, hence, the resurrected Shepard was trying her best, but couldn't manage to come up with a mutually agreeable solution when Tali and Legion were at each other's throats. ~ [[United Shoes 37]]

*** Or Saren got his mind [[Mind Raped|Indoctrinated]] to mush. When Shepard gets through to what's left of Saren at the finale of ME1, Saren gets a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment and promptly shoots himself in the head.

*** So now would be a good time to mention that a 'slang' term for Joker's Osteogenesis imperfecta is Avian Bone Syndrome?

* So I was listening to Tali chatter about her father on the admiralty board, and wondering whether or not it had been too hard to make the light on her face-plate light in sync with her words or if Bioware had just been a bit lazy .. a moment later I realised it actually ''was'' flashing in-sync - it was just going out with every word. At least it seemed to be. But then it hit me; the light on the Quarian faceplate looks so very much like the light on the cyclopean Geth - it's another trick to establish a subconscious link between the Geth and their creators in the mind of the player. More than that, it might even be a hint at some deeper element of Quarian cultural aesthetics - is there some deeper significance to the single glowing light that featured first on their creations, and now on every one of their body suits? Heck, it might even be intended to create a play back and forth between the facelessness of the Geth and the Quarians, both intensifying the oddness of the Quarian faceplate and reminding there's probably a lot more to the Geth than the initial faceless, emotionless robot they initially seem to be. - [[Chibi-Kibou]]

* You know why people don't respond in panic to the fact that [[Elephant in Thethe Living Room|you're bringing Legion onto the Citadel?]] Because A) Legion has a ''giant hole in them'', and B) Legion is ''wearing N7 armor''. Its quite obvious that whatever Legion is, they ''aren't'' a geth, at least not after a moment's observation.

* I was about to start Legion's loyalty mission. I chose Tali because I figured we would be fighting a lot of geth. Part-way through the level I started wondering why they gave Legion and Tali the same powers, because it made them the worst squad ever. At first I thought it was just laziness from Bioware, then it hit me. They have the same powers because the quarians ''built'' the geth, of ''course'' they are going to have the same base traits (Higher shield levels, tech-based skills etc.) Secondly, quarians ''hate'' the geth because they kicked them off of the homeworld. Thier ''races'' aren't compatible, so the ''individuals'' aren't compatible. -[[King Sasquatch]]

* I hear a lot of bitching about the fact we lost the [[Scrappy Mechanic|horrible inventory]] COMPLETELY and now everyone uses the same weapons, not to mention the fact that we [[Restart At Level One|restart at level one]] (or a little higher for importing a character) when previously Shepard was a [[Badass]] of the first order with top-of-the-line weaponry. [[Fridge Brilliance|This was all part of the plan.]] You start ''ME2'' at exactly the same place as the end of ME1: you're strong enough to take on an army of Geth - sorry, mechs - and your weaponry is ''still'' top of the range. You don't need to buy millions of upgrades or new weapons every other planet because you're already using the all the upgrades Cerberus could get its grubby little paws on, and have outfitted your ship to make anything else you find! Money too - you're making for every mission what you only dreamed of at the beginning of ME1, because the stuff you're buying now is new and experimental tech that costs an arm and a leg! Finally, you only level another 30 or so levels because you're going from killing {{spoiler|the most feared Spectre in the Galaxy}} to a whole {{spoiler|human fetal}} Reaper! Of course you've leveled up. I love this realisation so hard. -Sefriel

** To add to that, in ME1 enemies scale up to your level--youlevel—you're never ''inordinately'' stronger than them, in the sense they're still level-one mooks and you're a level-sixty god. So when you hit ME2, the same occurs: you're still not so much stronger than them that their bullets simply bounce off of your hardened skin weaved flesh, but you are using the best weapons, come equipped with top-of-the-line armor, and still have your combat expertise.

* Maybe I'm a total idiot for not seeing this immediately, but the nightclub [[Bad Guy Bar|Afterlife]] just seems like a random name for a bar/stripclub, right? WRONG. If you think about it, it gets its name from the mined-out space station it resides on, [[Wretched Hive|Omega]]. After all, the name ''Omega'' often alludes to the end of everything- life, death, whatever- and Afterlife is something of a beginning- at least to the mercs and scums who go there. It's brilliant! -[[Tropers/Raverine|Raverine]]

** It gets better. Shepard dies, comes back, and goes to Afterlife. To pick up Archangel. -[[Tropers/Random Fanboy|Random Fanboy]]

** And who rules Afterlife? Aria, voiced by Carrie-Anne Moss. Trinity. Like she says, she IS Omega and presumably the Alpha as well. - [[El Bobo Grande]]

* Miranda makes a great deal out of her genetic enhancements, complaining that a lot is expected of her and she doesn't view her achievements as her own because of it. A contributing factor to this is the extremes her father went to to ensure she was "perfect", up to and including disposing of those who weren't up to his standards. But this isn't the real reason. In the ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' DLC, you get access to Shadow Broker dossiers on your squadmates which reveal sometimes [[Crowning Moment of Funny|hilarious]] and sometimes [[Tear Jerker|terribly sad]] facts about your squad. Miranda doesn't hate her genetic enhancements because of some (misguided) sense of worthlessness; she hates them because {{spoiler|it might be the reason she can't naturally have children.}} A lot of people thought this was just was [[Wangst]] and the tired old cliche of [[So Beautiful ItsIt's a Curse]] - looks like they might have been wrong. - Medicus

**** Firstly, {{spoiler|the female reproduction system does not work that way. Women don't produce eggs, they're born with a limited number and once they're gone, they're gone. It's why female patients undergoing chemotherapy usually put a few on ice.}} Secondly, we actually have no idea what the neoplasm actually did or where it was located, other than {{spoiler|it made her sterile.}} It may be the only way to fix the problem is for Miranda to have a whole new {{spoiler|reproduction system}} custom-grown for her, which -- evenwhich—even for ''Mass Effect'' -- is—is probably impossible. In fact, it was probably the reason Oriana was created, and Miranda's father was too much of a [[Complete Monster]] to tell her. -- Medicus

{{quote| '''Harbinger:''' Human, you've changed nothing. Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater. That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction. You have failed. We will find another way. Releasing control.}}

** At which point it's revealed that Harbinger wasn't the Collector general but rather the Reaper controlling him like the others. That last bit about having failed has always seemed like classic pointless villain chest pounding, though, especially since Shepard is inside the ''Normandy'' at that point and can't hear it. It wasn't until my second playthrough that I realized there's a second reveal hidden behind the first - at that point the Reaper isn't trying to intimidate you, it's not speaking to Shepard at all. It's speaking to the general, admonishing him, a final insult from his god before his death. This made me feel even more sorry for the poor bastard than the first time around. - Sordid

* I'll probably get labelled a pervert for adding this, but here we go. In ''Mass Effect 2'' its a widely known secret that you can flirt with Yeoman Kelly Chambers. If you finish the last mission with her being rescued and you aren't in a romance with any of the other women on the ship, you can invite her up to your room to have her dance in a stripper outfit. The reason as to why she dances in your room is fairly [[Ms. Fanservice|obvious]], but it makes a lot of sense if you examine the context: Kelly acts as the ship's counselor and has a psychology degree. She's also very uninhibited and after you have dinner with her as a first date she says she hadn't stayed up that late since her days in college. It's not too big a stretch to think that while in school studying for her degree (Psych is not easy to major in), she took up dancing in bars to help pay the bills. When she graduated and quit the dancer job, she kept the catsuit as a memento and decided to dust it off to perform a private dance for you. - [[Anomaly 188]]

** To add further [[Fetish Fuel]] to the fire, it was an ''asari'' strip club, hence the make of catsuit (standard issue for asari "dancers"). This is also where she picked up her xenophilia. - Medicus

*** This is also why she is the prime suspect (according to the fandom) for the outbreak of 'scale itch' on the ''Normandy''; it's a sexually transmitted disease, and only carried by varren, which are basically the alien equivalent of pit bulls. Unpleasant implications, indeed. - princeforte

* I got another one. Its always annoyed me in the games how NPCs always turn their head in one direction before exiting the area (usually after you fulfill a quest for them). It looks completely silly and unnatural, and it was a chore for me to wrap my head around why they do that. Only recently did I have an epiphany as to why: Mass Effect is a [[Space Opera]]. Opera is usually acted out on stage. The NPCs are all playing roles for Shepard and the crew to interact with. After their moment in the spotlight, they leave. The NPCs are stage actors and are signaling their exit from the scene instead of announcing it. Looking left and walking means "Exit Stage Left!" - [[Anomaly 188]]

* The background of the menu of ''Mass Effect 2'' is the interior of the Normandy. The menu itself is Shepard's private terminal. You're playing as Shepard before ''you even start the game''. -[[Tropers/Tera Chimera|Tera Chimera]]

** Thane is also a sniper-- snipingsniper—sniping is an excellent defensive fire tactic.

*** {{spoiler|[[MEMass Effect 3]] confirms that the Protheans were at least aware of the races, and were heavily involved with influencing the primitive asari.}}

* At the end of Garrus' loyalty mission, if you're going with the Paragon route, {{spoiler|when Sidonis talks about how he can't sleep at night, he walks to one side, and Shepard walks between him and Garrus to prevent Garrus from shooting him - until Sidonis leans against a railing. Pay close attention, and you'll notice that Shepard ''isn't'' next to the railing. He's giving Garrus a shot, and ''Garrus isn't taking it''. After that, there's one last dialogue choice before Sidonis leaves, where Garrus wants one last chance to shoot Sidonis - even though he already has a clear shot. Garrus is putting some serious thought into this decision.}} -[[Tropers/Tera Chimera|Tera Chimera]]

* The menu in ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mass Effect 1]]'' is blue. In the [[Darker and Edgier]] sequel the menu is orange. The same colours as the [[Karma Meter]] -Playsbassbadly

** I noticed that too - I assumed it was because while your employer in the first game is Paragon friendly, your employer in the second is Renegade friendly. Which is [[Fridge Brilliance]] in itself I guess. - [[Tropers/Randomfanboy|Randomfanboy]]

** This might actually be the case: E3 pictures of the menus are dark blue, and its widely known that you're back with the Alliance.

* Paragon interrupts often involve exploring alternate options to a violent confrontation. Renegade interrupts focus on immediate and often violent action. In the Windows version of the game, Paragon interrupts are triggered by clicking the right mouse button when they come up, and Renegade interrupts by the left mouse button. In the default settings of the Windows operating system, right clicks bring up a context menu (more options) while left clicks are an immediate selection and default action on whatever it is you're clicking on. I see what you did there Bioware.

* At first, [[Tropers/Tera Chimera|I]] was annoyed that in the ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'' teaser, [[Fan Nickname|Big Ben]]'s sniper rifle looks like a bolt-action gun - it's the year 2185, for Pete's sake! But guess what I found while browsing the ''ME'' wiki - the Mantis and the Widow are both bolt-action. The design most likely allows for a quick cycling of a heat sink, and they're powerful enough that each round ''could'' require its own heat sink.

** However, the ME wiki does not say whether the Incisor - the gun Ben's using - is bolt action. [[Defensive "What?"|What?]]

** Or maybe the Reapers simply [[http://badspot.deviantart.com/art/Mass-Effect-Comic-Boss-Rush-168998762?q=gallery<!-- 3Abadspot2F5415072%3Abadspot%2F5415072&qo=30 Did Not Do The Research.]] -->

** It's never explicitly stated, but if you pay attention to the info given about krogan, you realize they probably don't die of old age like the races do; with their regenerative capabilities, there's little reason for them to do so. Krogan die from particularly virulent diseases or injury

* A while back [[This Troper]] said how the bar [[Bad Guy Bar|Afterlife]] is not a ''just'' some [[Rule of Cool|cool name]]. Well, I've started researching on the names of the other bars/stripclubs we can visit in the game. ''Flux?'' Yeah, pretty cool name I guess, but take in to consideration what it means: the music we can hear is just damn ''flowing'' in the ears- not to mention the ''influx'' of money you can get from the casino! Okay, how about ''Chora's Den?'' According to Greek philosophy, ''Khora'' is often linked with sexually-coded maternal overtones; words often associted with it are ''mother, womb, nurse''- wait a minute, [[Freud Was Right|Freudian much]]?! -[[Tropers/Raverine|Raverine]]

* After reading this page, I understood Jack a little bit more, especially the tattoos and, um, lack of clothing. But it still kinda bugged me that if it were true that, as an abuse victim, it was an act of reasserting control over her body, why did she have the strap combination thing on her upper half? I marked it down to Bioware not showing bare breasts, but the real answer is so staggeringly obvious, I can't imagine why I didn't realize it before. Jack is a very active woman, obviously. She gets in fights almost constantly. So of ''course'' she'd wear something over her breasts! Sports bras were invented for a reason, after all! (what makes it even worse is that I'm female... you'd think this would be something I'd recognize instantly!) -[[Tropers/Alynnidalar|Alynnidalar]]

* During the final boss fight of Overlord, {{spoiler|geth pop out of thin air to slow you down. At first, it just seems like they're there to stall you from a gameplay perspective, and wouldn't make sense in-universe. However, a few minutes earlier, David hacked your omni-tool and is basically controlling you. The geth also vanish when they die, implying they don't really exist. They ''do'' exist, and they ''are'' real geth - they're not geth platforms, they're geth ''programs''. David is sending the few geth programs remaining on the planet to [[Mind Rape]] you via your omni-tool.}} -[[Tropers/Tera Chimera|Tera Chimera]]

* Legion mentions that the heretic virus introduces a mathematical error in low-level geth processing, resulting in the same operation returning 1.33381 versus 1.33382. At that time, it just seemed to me like a typical [[LaymansLayman's Terms]] analogy. Then I read on the Mass Effect wiki that Legion was actually referencing the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug:Pentium FDIV bug|Pentium FDIV bug]]!

**** I'm not talking about the second game. Hanharr was only in the first, [[Bio WareBioWare]]-made ''KoTOR''.

* Ever wonder why, when traveling to another cluster, you simply don't take the shortest route? Even if two clusters are close together, the route to them from another could be completely different. It hit me after a while: it's the way mass relays are connected to each other. A relay in one system might not be connected to a relay in another, nearby one. You might need to take a roundabout route to get to your destination, but because of the way the relays work, that won't take too long. -[[Tropers/Tera Chimera|Tera Chimera]]

* The chef selling ramen noodles as a 'delicacy' seems like a quick jab at people taking advantage of tourists by fooling people into thinking something's worth more than it is. However, when you think about such delicacies as lobster and escargot, they both started as food people only ate when they were too poor or desperate to get anything else, so maybe he's telling the truth? --[[Scsi Modem]]

* At first I was confused as to why the Turian and the Krogan, both races who focus on martial prowess (but in different ways) would have the Sentinel class in multiplayer since it is the class with the least focus on weaponry. Then it occurred to me, the Sentinel is the most defensive class in the game and having a race who evolved from a harsh environment would be the logical choice for the Sentinel since it makes an already hard to kill Krogan nearly impossible to kill. As for the Turian, I realize that the Turian Sentinel you are playing as is part of the Cabal, a group of biotic specialists in the Turian military.

* If you look at the galactic history in the Mass Effect universe, you'll notice one constant: every time the Citadel civilization has been at danger of being eradicated, a newcomer species with no previous contact with them has been necessary to save the day. First the Rachni Wars that were resolved by the uplifted krogan. Then the Krogan Rebellions that were resolved by the newly encountered turians. And finally the Reaper invasion, presumably to be resolved by the human upstarts. Basically, it seems that the Citadel civilization, based around the Mass Relay technology that no-one quite understands encourages cultural and technological stagnation, and helplessness against outside threats. The Reaper social engineering is more insidious and clever than the straightforward Indoctrination might insinuate.

* The Reapers invade the Batarian homeworld first, which would explain ''why'' the first hybrids we see are Human/Batarian hybrid husks (the Cannibals).

* In the third game, at first I was pissed that certain missions like the Grissom Academy mission become unavailable if you wait too long. Then I realized that it ties into a main theme in the game -- thatgame—that you can't save everyone, and gives the player the same feeling Shepard has of feeling weak and ineffective if you can't do it in time.

* The [[Grand Finale]] takes a lot of flak, but given enough thought, the entire series has been leading up to those {{spoiler|[[Multiple Endings|Three Possible Endings]]. The Reapers are believed to be a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]], but the [[Exposition Fairy|Catalyst]] points out that to its knowledge, ''every'' civilization falls apart due to failed [[The Singularity|Singularities]]; "[[Turned Against Their Masters|The Created Destroys The Creator.]]" In the previous cycle, the Protheans had the "[[Noodle Incident|Metacore War]]", and the current cycle has managed to do it ''twice''; not only the quarians and the geth, but also the turians/salarians and the krogan(uplifting a species to fight their battles for them and sterilizing them once they rebelled is no different ideologically from creating servants who refused to be turned off - creating life then throwing it away once it becomes troublesome). These wars destroy biospheres, preventing future species from evolving. When Harbinger spoke of being "salvation through destruction", he was right [[From a Certain Point of View]]; they preserve civilizations as data, they preserve worlds from [[Robot War|Robot Wars]]s. Once organics became capable of interacting with the Catalyst, that cycle became inherently flawed; the Reapers' network was no longer secure, and would eventually fall, destroying everything the Reapers had preserved. Hence it is left to Shepard what the new solution should be: preventing synthetic life from ever evolving again(by means of making technology impossible), subduing synthetic life so they cannot harm organics, or merging with synthetic life with the hope that interaction would defeat fear.}}

*** {{spoiler|The dominant race[s] of every other cycle had failed at this task, not because they weren't sufficiently advanced [after all, the plans for the Crucible were described in the game as being "elegant but simple", suggesting that it did not require an unusually high level of technological sophistication to complete], but because they were unable to make peace and cooperate with one another well enough to complete the test laid before them.}}

*** {{spoiler|The Protheans came close, but as we learn from Javik, their methods of maintaining order in the galaxy were flawed in that they were harsh and imperialistic, and their meddling with less advanced species [most notably the asari] suggested that they would ultimately fall in a war of rebellion at the hands of one or more of the races they had subjugated.}}

*** {{spoiler|Incidentally, this also explains why it makes perfect symbolic sense that the batarians were the first species to be effectively wiped out by the Reapers. They refused to cooperate with anybody.}}

*** {{spoiler|This is why even the 'control' ending is viewed as positive because Shepard, by virtue of his/her actions, has ascended to a level above the Catalyst, and thus becomes the new Catalyst - he has changed the equation. Whereas if Shepard ignores or fails to adequately address certain instances of chaos in the galaxy, the Catalyst views this as a failure and narrows our choices [or, if we did badly enough, outright pulls the rug out from under us by using the Crucible to wipe out all organic life, likely out of despair that we came so close yet could not achieve what we were supposed to.}}

*** {{spoiler|Even Shepard's name is symbolic if you view things like this. After all, it's another version of "shepherd", and what is a shepherd but a guide?}}

** {{spoiler|As for the mass relays being destroyed - consider what we've seen throughout the series. The Protheans were able to create their own prototype mass relay, which still exists on Ilos. We can't know for sure, but logic dictates that at some point after its discovery, it was thoroughly studied by top scientific minds to figure out how it worked. Galactic society and commerce is in shambles, yes, but then you recall that not long before the events of these games, quantum entanglement communication was invented, which allowed users to bypass the use of mass relays for long-distance communications. This suggests that even though it'll likely take years or decades, the framework of galactic society will ultimately be rebuilt without Reaper technology.}}

*** {{spoiler|The united fleets of space are all within the Sol system, which means there's plenty of Eezo to utilize. Furthermore, all the greatest engineering minds of the galaxy are gathered in the Sol system, which means studying the Reapers is far from a mere dream. And, as has been shown, the Reapers used their own FTL systems, independent of the mass relays, made it from dark space back to the galaxy in a year--from so far away that the galaxy actually ''looks like a galaxy.'' It seems unlikely the galaxy would remain divided for long just because the relays were destroyed.}}

** Third Medical technology will be almost overnight revolutionized {{spoiler|due to all species being techno-organic.}}

** All in all, this all everything can be better then it was before.

* For all the vitriol the destruction of {{spoiler|the Mass Relays has caused in the fanbase, thematically it's hard to imagine a more appropriate ending to the trilogy. The Relay Network represents a trap, a hidden system of control that confines that galactic civilization to predetermined paths, and technological and cultural stagnation. The destruction of the Network represents breaking off these chains for good, and forging a new path to a future that is uncertain, but free. And it's not like the Relays can't be rebuilt, for a better purpose, with better understanding.}}

* Some fans think the bachelor party in [[MEMass Effect 2]] are right about the asari - they mind control the viewer to make them think asari are more attractive and look more like their race. Aside from being [[Fridge Brilliance]] for why asari look so human, it could also be one reason why in [[MEMass Effect 3]] {{spoiler|the Protheans favoured the asari and chose them as the ones to carry on the knowledge of the Reapers for future races - the Protheans see the asari as being the race most like them!}}

** Alcohol is one of the few organic substances that is achiral, and thus should be drinkable by either chirality.

* When you're {{spoiler|giving EDI access to all of the Normandy's controls, Joker mutters, "Now I'll be spending all day computing pi because I plugged in the overlord."}} Obviously, this refers to {{spoiler|how [[A Is]]AIs are thought to conquer organics without a second thought}}, but it has a second meaning. {{spoiler|In the final battle of the Overlord DLC, if you take too long, David will upload to the Normandy and take over EDI, who has full control over the ship. In effect, the Overlord was plugged in, and Joker is now useless, relegated to computing pi and the square root of 912.04.}}

* There's actually a fair bit of logic in the abilities of your squadmates in ME2. Garrus was your Infiltrator swap in ME1, so he has a combat ability and a tech ability. Thane is an assassin, so he has the biotic abilities dedicated to killing people, instead of crowd control. Miranda was bred to be perfect, so she's the only squadmate who can take down all four forms of defence. Mordin is a scientist specializing in organics, so he has the two tech powers useful against organics. Tali grew up with a father who wanted war with the geth, and thus has abilities that take down shields and hack synthetics-- twosynthetics—two thinggs very useful in a fight against the geth. {{spoiler|Legion is a geth, so his powers consist of using his many runtimes to either hack other robots or to provide fire support. He's also a sniper, so having a drone to provide crowd control would be very helpful.}} My two favorites however, are Zaeed and Jack. Zaeed has spent most of his life trying to take down the Blue Suns. As any Adept will tell you through gritted teeth, the Blue Suns all use Shields. So, it makes perfect sense that he's the only squad member who can use disruptor ammo, which is specifically designed to take down shields. Jack is the absolute best, so just stay with me. Some people in the ME universe consider biotics to be an evolution of humanity, some kind of higher form of existance (think mutants from X-men). In other words, to use Harbinger's words, biotics are humanity's GENETIC DESTINY. Harbinger constantly taunts Shepard with those particular words, and it is eventually revealed that ''his'' idea for humanity's genetic destiny involves either {{spoiler|being turned into a Reaper or becoming a slave race like the Protheans.}} Jack is the most powerful human biotic in the galaxy. In other words, she has already reached humanity's genetic destiny; she is a higher form of human... sort of. So, whose powers are the absolute best at fighting off the agents of the Reapers? Who is best at preserving humanity's own genetic destiny and staving off the destiny that the Reapers had in mind? Well, with Shockwave (best move for taking down husks) and Warp Ammo (specifically designed to take down barriers, armor and health. If those sound familiar, they are the only form of defence that the Collectors use), Jack is the absolute best squadmate to take on the Collector missions in the game. Hell, Harbinger doesn't even stand a chance against humanity's own genetic destiny.

* In ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mass Effect 1]]'' Wrex has an armor he can wear called the Warlord. Guess what armor he's wearing while chieftain of the Urdnot clan in ''ME2''?

* A side assignment in ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mass Effect 1]]'' has Shepard wrecking a secret Cerberus base and copying some sensitive files. A Shadow Broker agent calls Shepard on the comm asking for the files. There's no reason to trust the Shadow Broker with the data at the time, beyond general apathy for terrorists' secrets. After ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'', though, it seems {{spoiler|sending the files would have been a great thing to do, since they'll eventually end up in the hands of the next Shadow Broker -- Shepard's loyal friend/loving girlfriend Liara, who can use it to help against the dubious Illusive Man.}}.

** There's also a mission in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' where you recover potentially damaging information on Cerberus and have the option of returning it too them, uploading it to the Alliance, or just keeping it for yourself.

** It also happens to be a reference to Alan Shepard, the first American to go to outer space. And before anyone says anything, Neil Armstrong was the first guy on the Moon. Not in space. -Troper67

** Further, the only squadmates whose skills are ''identical'' to Shepard's are Ashley and Kaidan, because they got their training from the same place Shepard did. Everyone else's training is slightly different, and for good reason:

** Garrus gets Adrenaline Rush instead of Immunity, which makes him more of a [[Glass Cannon]] than Infiltrator!Shepard but allows him to [[Fragile Speedster|spam tech and weapon skills]] (i.e. [[Boom! Headshot!|Assassination]]) much faster.

*** As of [[MEMass Effect 3]], we learn that the genophage has been going on for approximately 1500 years. Wrex is only around a thousand years old.

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'', some people may wonder why, if Shepard ends up being {{spoiler|unable to resist Morinth}} in Samara's loyalty mission, that the cutscene between {{spoiler|her and Samara that immediately follows}} plays out in the same fashion, with the only difference being {{spoiler|Shepard automatically chooses to aid Samara. Why don't you get the choice? Because Shepard ''cannot resist'' Morinth, and realises that if s/he lets Samara die, Morinth's way of thanks would be to immediately put on the moves, seduce Shepard and kill him/her. Even a Renegade Shepard realises this, and though Samara may be a future problem, right now the bigger danger is the hypnotic sex vamp.}} That also explains why you need a maxed out Paragon/Renegade bar to {{spoiler|make the choice in the first place - only the most badass Shepard can resist Morinth and bring her to heel.}}

* Geth gaining sentinence is often a concern for the Quarians, but it wasn't because of the fact they are alive. But because it is against Citadel Laws to have sentinent AI, they could have let the Geth live as sentinent machines. But with the laws of artificial intelligence. The Quarians have legitimate concern on why Geth can be sentinent, this also leads to another thing about Legion's Shadow Broker Dossier. The games it plays are not for fun like normal humans but literally training programs to make sure targeting software ([[First -Person Shooter]] games), marco management (MMORPG games) and psyche research (Quarian Date Sim) are fully functional.

* In ''Retribution'', when Grayson is resisting against the Reapers' control, they subtly shift his thought processes so that he decides that best course of action is to find Kahlee, which is what the Reapers want anyway. Now, go back to ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mass Effect 1]]'', where Saren and Shepard are fighting at the base on Virmire. Shepard begins to instill doubts in Saren's mind, but then Saren suddenly becomes angry, declaring that his plan will save countless lives and that Shepard's actions would undo his work, and then he attacks in a rage. I suddenly realized, after reading the book, that Sovereign was doing the same thing to Saren that the Reapers did to Grayson: subtly shifted his thought processes so that he would conclude that Shepard was going to "undo his work" and then attack him/her, instead of stopping to listen.

*** [[Doctor Who (TV)|"What's life. Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh."]]

*** Plus, most of the scientists were killed by rampaging mechs during the first level of gameplay. Most of those discoveries have been lost. Shep's resurrection may have been as much luck as anything else, and now there's probably [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|no record left of how it was done]].

* You'd think at first the Reapers invading Earth and killing/harvesting humanity is [[Bio WareBioWare]]'s attempt to make [[Humans Are Special|humanity seem invaluable to the galaxy.]] Then it suddenly dawns on you that despite all of Shepard's actions (especially Paragon) throughout ''Mass Effect 1'' and ''2'', humanity is still the underdog of the galaxy when you think how the Council and other races would react if the Reapers attacked the Turians, Asari or Salarians in comparison. Humans are the least cared for species in council space and knowing the Reapers, they already caught on other races would be less inclined to help.

* Warden Kuril's name in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]''. "Cure ill." -> what he imagines himself to be doing.

* Notice the wall designs of Afterlife. Fire holovids. After all, you ''are'' in hell -- literallyhell—literally.

** The ''Normandy'' dies and is resurrected.

*** Both were resurrected by Cerberus. In Greek mythology, the Cerberus, a three-headed dog, guards the gates of Hades. So one could infer that Cerberus wouldn't let Shepard or the Normandy pass the gates of Hades.

** Garrus--whenGarrus—when you first pick him up he's killing people. Not that unusual, except he's probably the only one apart from possibly Thane who's actively killing people while you're getting his quest. Also, {{spoiler|his vigilante name is Archangel.}}

** Mordin--anMordin—an elderly doctor who kills people. Kind of a paradox.

** Jack--hasJack—has an enormous omega symbol on her back.

** Samara--"Appointment in Samarra." In the original story, Death is a woman.

** Grunt--tyingGrunt—tying into the life theme, Grunt is the youngest squadmember, and he's practically a child compared to the other krogan Shepard meets.

** Thane--aThane—a dying assassin with a young son.

** The krogans and the quarians--bothquarians—both races trying to restore (to resurrect?) themselves.

** The Reapers in general--thegeneral—the ultimate death dealers, but it seems that {{spoiler|they kill to create life.}}

** The name becomes even more meaningful when you consider her relationship to the Illusive Man in [[MEMass Effect 2]]. He's very much a father-figure to her, more than her real father ever was, and she's the only person ever seen in the same room with him. So if she's Miranda, that would make him [[The Tempest|Prospero]]...

* Grunt, when he is first released from the tank, says he has no name and no clan, and that without any of Okeer's affiliations, one fight is as good as another. Essentially, while he is genetically a Krogan, all he sees himself as is just "Grunt". However, during his loyalty mission, Grunt starts shouting his trademark [[Catch Phrase]] in battle: "[[ThisPunctuated! IsFor! SpartaEmphasis!|I AM KROGAN!]]" Imagine your first waking memory being flushed out of a giant tank as a fully grown adult, with only some distant knowledge and skills implanted into your head, but no identity. Going through the rite of passage gave him the one thing that he needed: an identity, a place in the universe.

* Try starting a new game of the original ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mass Effect]]'' and pay close attention to what Lt. Jenkins says... ''everything'' he says is foreshadowing the upcoming events.

* I was thinking about [[Eternal Recurrance]] one day, and thought about it in relation to ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]''. At first I was amused by the thought of Shepard being horrified by the villains 'repeating [a] pattern of genocide over and over' in a violent game specifically designed to be played over and over ([[What the Hell, Player?]]?). Then it occured to me that the Reapers might be a reference to Bioware themselves. Reapers manipulate and control the galaxy so that they can wipe it all out over and over. Bioware are fairly notorious for all their games [[Strictly Formula|being pretty much the same in terms of plot - and they are always about killing a lot of people in order to save the world/galaxy/realm/whatever.]] In Mass Effect, the hero learns that this is happening, and resolves to stop it. ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' shakes up the formula a hell of a lot as Shepard strikes a decisive blow against the Reapers. Of course, unless ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'' inludes Shepard learning that all his/her actions were planned by the Reapers/Bioware, I'm probably reading too much into it; Regardless, it's still interesting. - [[Tropers/Randomfanboy|Randomfanboy]]

** Calling it. [[Mass Effect]] will turn into [[Animal Man]].

* The Thanix Cannon was reverse-engineered from Sovereign, making its use against the Collectors deliciously ironic. That's not the Fridge Brilliance part. That would be the fact that you get the upgrade from Garrus, who loves to inflict [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]] upon his opponents. They really thought this through.

* I absolutely hated how, in a sci-fi setting, humans were always the most genetically diverse while all the other alien species were homogeneous to the point that the only true physical differences (if any) were between males and females. The explanation for this was usually [[Hand Wave|Hand Waved]]d as humans couldn't tell them apart. Then I read ''[[Mass Effect]]: Ascension'' which offered an explanation so brilliant and so obvious that I don't know how I never saw it before: It's an accepted theory that the discovery that one is not alone in the universe would have the effect of uniting the entire species into one group instead of nation states and ethnicity. However, the consequence of this would be that, over time, all ethnic groups would eventually blend into a select few if not one. Since humanity is frequently the newcomer in the galaxy, this has yet to happen to them. -- [[Red Viking]]

** I understand where you were coming from, I too was bothered by all these ''[[Planet of Hats|one hat planets]]'' until I came across some cheezy old 70s science fiction novel called Spaceways which was left on a train. I was going to be traveling for the next few hours anyway so I read it; while there was a lot of [[Zeerust]] aspects to the story, the concept that grabbed my attention the most was the 'fact' that almost all humans in the universe had dark brown to black hair, brown eyes and dark completions, the rare humans who are naturally born with features like light skin, blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair are considered genetic throwbacks. It was at this time that I realised that in this book at least, humans became the One Hat species. It was brilliant. -- [[Inkki Bookman]]

** I used to think like that too. Then I realized: Every species looks alike to every other species. To Aspirin's Zenobians we all smell like human, to the illithids we're just crunchy coating around a delicious snack, to Wells' martians we were just tiny stinging evil things that liked high gravity. ''every'' species is a one-hat species. --[[JET 73 L]]

** There's a really good example of the whole species becomes homogenous with time in Joe Haldeman's novel ''The Forever War''. I think you'd probably like it. -- [[Flabyo]]

** In Kurt Vonnegut's [[Galapagos (Literature)|Galapagos]], the whole human race devolves and becomes furry, essentially homogenous. --[[MJ]]

* Why was the Shadow Broker so willing to work with the Collectors? Simple: he was thinking like {{spoiler|a Yahg}}. It's said they serve those who firmly establish they're stronger with fearsome loyalty. The Collectors simply established their dominance, and the Shadow Broker dared not challenge it. --[[Killer Clowns]]

{{quote| '''Ezekiel 34:12-16''': As a Shepherd looks after his ''[[We Were Your Team|scattered flock]]'' when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered ''on a day of clouds and darkness.'' [...] '''I will search for the lost''' and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will Shepherd the flock with justice.}}

* Look ''real'' close at both [http://images.wikia.com/masseffect/images/7/7a/Illusive_Man.png TIM] and [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ec/Saren.jpg Saren]{{Dead link}}. Their eyes look really similar, don't they? In TIM's case, it probably foreshadows {{spoiler|that he's been touched by Reaper technology}} just like Saren was. It's less obvious with Saren because his eyes are smaller and the graphics aren't as good.

{{quote| '''Shepard:''' Ash/Kaidan...?<br />

* Mordin describes the genophage in detail: it essentially rewires glands in the bodies of krogan females that control fetal growth, causing deformities that are lethal to 999/1000 of the resulting offspring - the genetic equivalent of [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Teratology#Teratogenesis |teratogenesis]] I.E. ''thalidomide babies.'' That seems a pretty sick thing for a matriarchal society to do to someone, until you think hard about salarian civilization; males compete for the right to sire progeny on females, and females barter breeding rights as the sorce of their authority - ''[[Not So Different|just like post-genophage krogan.]]'' Salarian females ''aren't'' [[Mama Bear|Mama Bears]]s. Given the rarity of salarian females and how salarians consider science their most potent weapon, wouldn't a Dalatrass screwing up a rival female's ability to bear offspring be the equivalent of ''[[Realpolitik|America nuking Hiroshima?]]''

* The reason Hackett delivered the final [[Rousing Speech]] in ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'' instead of Shepard (who brought them home in the previous games) was that where he (the Admiral) ended it with "Hackett out", Shepard's speech would have gone something like "Stand fast. Stand strong. Stand together. [[Memetic Mutation|I should go.]]" That would be terrible.

* The Ship is called the 'Normandy'. What is one of the final cinematics of the series? Landing on Earth to TAKE THE PLANET BACK. What name could possibly be more fitting than that?

* After Mordin cures the genophage, if Eve and Wrex live, Wrex suggests naming a female after him. At first it seems like a joke (and it still is), but given how valuable and influential future krogan females are likely to be, it's also a great honor. Which Mordin completely deserves.

* In [[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]], one of the alien war assets that you can collect is the Citadel Defense Force. But since by the end game, the Citadel was captured by the Reapers and moved to Earth, you might wonder how come it still contributes to the final battle. Then you realized that the military strength point of CDF represents the amount of damage that the defenders were able to inflict upon the Reaper forces before they were [[Heroic Sacrifice|eventually overwhelmed]].

* Big Ben says, "Two million dead in the first day." That's two million dead, but in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'', the Reapers want humans alive. How many have they already captured? How many have they indoctrinated? And how many have been [[Fate Worse Than Death|turned into gray goo for Human-Reaper material]]?

**** Also, the 12 LY/d is not a sustainable velocity. In addition to how fast ships gulp down fuel during non-mass-relay interstellar travel, there's the problem that you have to dump the drive core's static charge every 50 hours, which means you are making stops in systems with suitable large planetary bodies (and not all are suitable) every dozen or so light-years. Across hundreds of thousands of light-years of space that was never fully charted because Citadel society's expansion throughout the galaxy is in a bunch of star clusters tightly grouped around mass relay exit points, not evenly distributed across the galactic map. You can no more hope to cross the galaxy in 'only' 22 years for the same reasons that a jeep capable of doing 60 &nbsp;mph could hope to drive the width of the Sahara Desert (approx. 3000 &nbsp;mi) in 'only' 50 hours, only the galaxy is a million times worse. Now, the ''Reapers'' can do it, but that's because they don't have any fuel limits, endurance limits, or need to dump drive core static charge... you ain't a Reaper, and if it took the Turians two years to figure out how to make a Thanix cannon from dead Reaper parts, I don't think you're going to be re-engineering Reaper FTL drive fast enough to get the quarians home before they starve to death, especially not with all the devastation you're ''already'' dealing with.

* Whichever way you slice them, each of the endings qualify especially {{spoiler|when you take into account the destruction of the Mass Relays. Mass Effect tech in general ''isn't'' destroyed if the Crucible is built and defended properly, so everyone probably still has FTL. The problem is that without the Mass Relays, there's no fast way to cross the galaxy. Everyone who came to aid you in the final battle, if they weren't killed, are now facing a ''decades-long'' trip back home at the very ''least''. More likely, they're trapped in the Orion Arm, as those big gaps you see on the galaxy map are ''much'' further than any ship can make without a drive discharge. And no other species has a homeworld in the arm. The same goes for the krogan left to deal with remaining Reaper forces on Palaven. Hell, most ''homeworlds'' have almost NO planets within drive range.}} Goddamn you, Bioware. {{spoiler|''[[Planet of the Apes|You MANIACS!]] [[Torch the Franchise Andand Run|YOU BLEW IT UP!]]''}}

** {{spoiler|Even worse are the implications from just who is left behind(assuming you got the optimum from your choices in-game). The Quarians just regained their homeworld (possibly peacefully with the Geth) and now have no way to get back to it. If you talk to Tali, it makes it worse when you learn that the Geth are helping them climate back to Rannoch's atmosphere and now have no way to get back. Almost all the Turians and most of the Asari now have no way to repair their ailing homeworlds. Arguably the Krogan get off the best because even though Wrex is stuck on Earth, "Eve" is still on Tuchanka (assuming she survives). Plus, on a personal note, Tali, who was so happy to finally be back on Rannoch, is stuck on another planet (I think, clear me up with this if the ending implies the Normandy is back on Earth) that doesn't even have civilization to give the hope of intergallactic space travel in the future. What the hell, [[Bio WareBioWare]]!?}}

* Even if you didn't {{spoiler|give the collector base to Cerberus}} in Mass Effect 2, In Mass Effect 3 a good bit of allied chatter consists of disbelief about the technological leaps Cerberus has taken. But for players who did all of the side quests in Mass Effect 2, much of the their time was previously helping scientists, investigating monuments and crashed ships, and finding Prothean Artifacts. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Cerberus didn't take an arbitrary leap in six months, SHEPARD made them more powerful because of all the tech, data, and Mordin's research upgrades!]] Shepard built his own headache-no wonder the Illusive Man doesn't care he quit!

* Near the end of [[MEMass Effect 3]], {{spoiler|when Task Force Hammer charges the transport beam and is wiped out by Harbinger,}} what happens to {{spoiler|your two squadmates?}}

* A bit of [[Fridge Horror]] from the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnEej1RfqTs Mass Effect 3 trailer]: Notice at the end of the trailer, Shepard is looking down on the Earth at clearly visible fires and explosions. Read that again. Fires and explosions. Clearly visible. From space. Do you have any idea how big they would have to be to be visible from space? Think [[Hiroshima Asas a Unit of Measure|nuke-scale]]. [[It Got Worse|And they're everywhere.]] This could be a case of [[Sci -Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]], but seeing as [[Bio WareBioWare]] generally averts this...

* [[Fridge Horror]], this time around. Remember how Sovereign could take the full punishment of several dreadnoughts without its shields failing? Well, think back to the "Issac Newton" speech in the second game. Each shot from a dreadnought has about three times the yield as [[Hiroshima Asas a Unit of Measure|the city buster dropped on Hiroshima]]. That means ''Sovereign could take multiple nukes to the face without flinching.'' Even weapons capable of ''leveling entire cities'' are [[Nigh Invulnerable|not enough to stop a Reaper]]. The closest we've seen to a weapon that could destroy a Reaper also tore a good chunk of planet off at the same time, and it ''still'' left a semi-operational wreck as opposed to complete vaporization like you'd expect. And we're going to be fighting ''thousands'' of these guys when ''ME3'' comes around...

* I thought [https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/bramson/CS534Website/mot.html Klendagon]{{Dead link}} looked eerily familiar somehow, that's when I saw this [http://zaeedmassani.tumblr.com/post/2620029607/look-very-closey-looks-familiar-goddamn great picture]{{Dead link}} of Mars- the Great Rift is actually based on Valles Marineris! -[[Tropers/Raverine|Raverine]]

** Keeping this speech in mind, watch the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlhaDUmL9Ac&t=156 space battle for Earth] in [[MEMass Effect 3]]. Look, how many missiles miss the Reapers. And continue flying in Earth's direction. Oh crap.

* A bit of [[Fridge Horror]] when you realize what the Collectors are, {{spoiler|Protheans who were changed}} and especially if you imagine that {{spoiler|some of them are the Protheans that went back to the Citadel to screw over Sovereign's plans, meaning that they were captured}}.

{{quote| The modifications are beyond any form of repair, each Collector drone being little more than a clone-—it's unknown if they even still possess any form of gender—-riddled with cybernetics, lacking glands or digestive system, and having any form of intelligence or self-awareness completely eradicated by indoctrination.}}

{{quote| No one has discovered the source of new keepers, but some hypothesize they are genetic constructs: biological androids created somewhere deep in the inaccessible core of the Citadel itself.}}

** Also, you probably missed that Saren had slightly blue glowing eyes as part of his modifications by the Reapers. But after knowing the Illusive Man from the second game with his very much visible blue glowing eyes, you'll notice that Saren has them too (though because of the less advanced graphics of the first game, it can't be said for sure that is intended to be the same effect). Which in turn would indicate, that the Illusive Man has also been [[Touched Byby Vorlons|touched by reapers]], but he still seems to have the strength to fight them.

** In the original ''[[Mass Effect 1 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mass Effect]]'', when you're at the Peak 15 research labs, you can trigger the neutron purge early and wipe out {{spoiler|the Rachni.}} If you do this, when you come back you'll find Captain Ventralis and his mercenaries, who tell you that they've got new orders from Benezia, and start shooting. He even [[Punch Clock Villain|apologizes]] about having to do it, too. After wiping them out, if you look around, you'll find all the scientists and workers are gone. ''All'' of them. ''Everywhere''. And there's ''nowhere'' for them to have gone... which leads to the rather frightening yet logical conclusion: Ventralis and his men didn't just have orders to kill you, they were ordered to wipe out ''everyone'' at the research station.

*** {{spoiler|Samara is the only one to subvert this. During her loyalty mission, if you don't/can't resist Morinth, she walks in just as Morinth totally mind controls Shepard. If she'd locked her door, Shepard would've been subject to [[Death Byby Sex]].}}

* In the Shadow Broker DLC for Mass Effect 2, you can read dossiers on your crewmates. Of particular interest is Grunt's, which shows that he's developing a taste for Ernest Hemingway's work. However, he seems to have read and then deleted the novel ''[[A Farewell to Arms (Literature)|A Farewell to Arms]]''. Seeing as he's a member of a warrior race, you might think it's because of the title. It's not. {{spoiler|At the end of the novel, the main character's love interest gives birth to a stillborn and then bleeds to death. Given what we know about the genophage, that imagery probably hit a ''little'' too close to home for poor Grunt.}}

{{quote| "Jartar is noted for the discovery of the 'Leviathan of Dis,' the apparent corpse of a '''genetically engineered living starship'''. The Leviathan was found in the bottom of a crater by a batarian survey team, and estimated to be nearly a '''billion years old.''' It 'disappeared' after a visit to the system by a batarian dreadnought twenty years ago."}}

* On the subject of the Mass Relay's being destroyed at the end of [[MEMass Effect 3]], there is a ton of Fridge Horror when one realizes that the destruction of a Mass Relay would trigger a super-nova that would destroy the system it is located in, as seen in the Arrival DLC in [[MEMass Effect 2]] (and also denoted in the codex.), and considering that you can see the explosions from well outside the galaxy, one would think it would kill all sentient life. [[GoodNice Job Breaking It, Hero|Good job killing everyone, hero]]. -[[Troper/Tical Calrisian|Tical Calrisian]]

* Part of the justification for renewing the genophage is that the krogan are still acting like bloodthirsty monsters. Where's the [[Fridge Horror]] in that? Imagine living every day with the understanding that neither you nor anyone you know is going to have any lasting impact on the world around you. None of you are going to hold your children, and should you dare to try to have children, [[Adult Fear|they'll be stillborn.]] If you're a woman "lucky" enough to have a healthy child, you're not only merely forestalling the inevitable, you're likely going to spend the rest of your short life on the run from your own people as they try to use you for a broodmare. Of course the genophage didn't deter the krogan from their violent lifestyle. It was the [[Despair Event Horizon]] that made almost every one of them a [[Death Seeker]].

* Here's one for the franchise: even if Shepard cures the genophage, ''it's not gone''. Mordin describes the genophage mechanism in detail: it's a genetic mutation which the affects glands in the female body governing the growth of a fetus in the womb.<ref>As in 999/1000 comes out too deformed to live. As salarians are matriarchal, it makes you wonder if salarian females have a genetic tendency towards [[Complete Monster|sociopathy]].</ref> "Eve's" body has simply transferred that from dedicated glands to a general metabolic process, making those glands as redundant as the rest of their organs. That makes the adaptation an explicit enhancement, ''but the genophage is still part of their genome.'' They essentially have a computer virus in their genes sending commands that no longer have a function. Another genophage modification is entirely possible.

* In [[MEMass Effect 2]] during Tali's mission on the Alarei, there is a log of a quarian's last few seconds before she's killed by the geth. She says, "Tell Jona to be good for his father." Cut to Rannoch in [[MEMass Effect 3]] as the quarians attempt to retake their home. A dying male quarian leaves a final message: "Tell Jona [[It Got Worse|his father died on the homeworld.]]"

* A rather personal Fridge moment/sadness: this Troper's Shepard is a [[Cosmic Plaything|Colonist/Sole Survivor]], always used to seeing a lot of tragedies and deaths. But this hits particularly hard on her in the events of ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' however, when she buys a fish from Illium for companionship aboard her deck. Now, this troper roleplays her Shep as rather workaholic, and she also actively avoids going to her quarters because it reminded her too much of the old Normandy. Because of that, she rarely had time to feed her fish... and then the long-awaited [[Suicide Mission]] came. This troper decided to change her Shepard's armor to suit the rather grim occasion, and that is when she noticed the dead fishes floating on her cabin's fish tank. ''[[Guilt Based Gaming|Dead]]''. Even in the mundane things of her life, [[Hurting Hero|failure follows her everywhere]]. This troper bawled so hard after that.

* The Romance Options in general for Male and Female Shepard have a common pattern. Both Shepards can romance the Virmire Survivor and Liara in the First Game. In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' they can have a relationship with a Dextro DNA alien, romancing the Cerberus Operative and romancing a notorious criminal. However, It seems that Male Shepard is always the lucky one to get the smooth skinned females while Female Shepard has to settle for scaly aliens who have a penchant for sniper rifles. [[Freud Was Right]]?

** And apparently, Male Shepard only likes pure blooded human/asari/quarians which define perfection of their genes.

*** Exactly how are Ashley or Tali "pureblooded" or "genetically perfect", again? Only Liara and Miranda are described in those terms, and in Liara's case it's an insult, not a praise.

* So, regarding the now-infamous ending for ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]'', this troper has a theory regarding why it is the way it is. Think about how the first game was deliberately a [[Reconstruction]] of the [[Space Opera]] of the '70s and '80s, and the second was more heavily influenced by [[Darker and Edgier]] '90s sci-fi. That would mean that the third game would logically be more influenced by sci-fi from the '00s2000s and '10s2010s. Which means the ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (2004 TV series)|the ''Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' reboot]], ''[[Star Trek Enterprise (TV)|Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]]'' and ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]'' (not so much ''[[Stargate SG-1 (TV)|Stargate SG-1]]''), and ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'', among others. All of which were far bleaker than what had come before and had endings that were either [[Downer Ending|bleak, unsatisfying]], [[Gainax Ending|obtuse, outright insane]], or some combination of the above.

** The point being that [[Bio WareBioWare]] did it [[Troll|intentionally]].

* [[Your Mileage May Vary]], as this was deserved, but Shepard's [[Shut UP, Hannibal]] to Sovereign: "You're not even alive. Not really. You're just a machine, and machines can be broken," comes off slightly worse when viewed in light of Legion and EDI.

** And as of ''ME3'', there's new light in knowing that each individual reaper is the entirety of an advanced (organic) civilization, preserved in Reaper form. "Just a machine", eh?

** It sort of makes sense if you consider that Shepard's interactions with AI in the first game were largely negative. The heretic geth were essentially at war with the Alliance (atand were thought to represent all geth instead of a small minority), the AI on the Citadel (which tried to blow itself up, killing Shepard and “as many organics as I can”), the rogue AI on Luna and now Sovereign, a literal [[Omnicidal Maniac]]. It’s not unreasonable to assume that Shepard though all AI were [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]]. But interactions with EDI, Legion and the true geth over the next two games probably changed his/her opinions.

*** Even in [[ME 1]]''ME1'', Shepard can argue with Tali that the geth were living beings with a right to life, and that the quarians were in the wrong.

* The Omniblade actually isn't a new development for ''[[Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 3]]''. After all, look at Kasumi whenever she uses Shadow Strike. She's striking at enemies with her omnitool! So those things can be pretty nasty weapons as early as ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]''.

*** This was my (Kodemunkey's) Fridge combination (logic, horror etc)

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